


Rebuilding

by chancellorxofxtrash



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Both of them are bundles of guilt and neither of them deals with it, Guilt, Kissing, M/M, Slapstick, Sue Me Season 3, The Ignis Come Back Because I Said So, Unresolved Sexual Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-03
Updated: 2019-11-03
Packaged: 2021-01-21 12:14:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,335
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21299288
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chancellorxofxtrash/pseuds/chancellorxofxtrash
Summary: Windy is back, but his body is still damaged - and maybe there is only one person who could help fixing him up.Point is, will he? And even if he says yes, what are the chances that they won't kill each other in the meantime?Or maybe, just maybe, the two of them understand each other more than they would admit.
Relationships: Revolver | Kougami Ryouken/Windy
Comments: 12
Kudos: 17
Collections: Cyberse Celebration 2019





	Rebuilding

**Author's Note:**

> So I know Cyberse Celebration was months ago, but consider - I didn't finish Vrains by that time. I only recently caught up, actually. So there you have it.
> 
> These are, I guess, somewhat connected to the prompts for "Regret" and "Redemption". What else, with these two?
> 
> Also this is just me back on my Ryoken/Windy agenda, don't even mind me.

When Windy awakened, the first thing he felt was pain.

When he opened his eyes, the first thing he saw was the comfortingly familiar swirl of the data storm around him.

Then a purple hand reaching for him - a very, very familiar, dark purple hand.

He wasn’t even thinking when he grabbed it, and allowed Ai to pull him out of the storm.

~*~

He was in a lot of pain. His entire body felt like it was going to fall apart any moment, and he could not see through one of his eyes - there were bandages wrapped around him, and dark purple scars all across his body, but it didn’t feel like it was going to work for long.

“I… uh. I don’t know how much you remember.”

Ai’s voice was unsure, and Windy did not look at him.

“I know what happened that I am this state, if that’s what you want to know.”

“Right. So, I think the virus inside you is still… well, there. We stopped it, but…”

“We?”

“Yeah. Playmaker and I. Kusanagi helped too. Remember Playmaker?”

Windy closed his eyes, recalling his memories.

“Yeah. Your partner. Your... “ He couldn’t form the words. “...he was the one who…”

“My origin, yes” Ai confirmed it. “He is helping me bringing everyone back.”

“...everyone?”

“Well…” Ai hesitated. “We will… talk about some things later.”

Oh, Windy was sure they are gonna. He gonna have some words about some of it.

“So. What about the virus?”

“Right. So apparently Revolver’s virus is very potent, so… we gotta have to work a bit more on that. Last time Lightning stopped it, but we don’t have Lightning, so we are… struggling. But no fear! We are doing our best.”

Joy.

~*~

He was in an abandoned duel disk in the place that Ai called _ hotdog truck _although surely didn’t look like that, with all the technical equipment inside.

He met with Kusanagi, and Playmaker, who didn’t look all that different outside of the digital world either (his green eyes were just as sharp, his words just as pointed). And of course there was Ai.

Sometimes in Playmaker’s duel disk, and sometimes wandering around in an android body, that he seemed to have gotten a fondness for.

Windy just thought he was plain annoying.

“Why would you want a human body?”

Ai shrugged, leaning on Playmaker’s back, while grinning at Windy.

“Because it’s fun. Duh. Also, I don’t have to hide this way, because I blend in.”

“You never blend in anywhere” Playmaker muttered, not even looking at Ai.

Ai obviously ignored his comment.

“You should try it too.”

“Maybe once I feel like my body isn’t falling apart.”

“Fair enough” Ai nodded, and Playmaker just glanced at Windy.

“We might have to ask the source to help out.”

The source.

“You think Revolver would fix me? He was the one who did this to me, why would he reverse it?”

“At this point that would definitely speed up the process.”

Windy snorted.

“Then I will surely stay like this forever.”

~*~

Revolver looked almost normal in the real world, but his pale blue eyes were just as cold and piercing as they were when Windy last met him.

(He remembered when he attacked Cyberse, he looked completely different, his eyes hollow and yellow, and impersonal. He figured the icy blue eyes were an upgrade to that.)

Revolver didn’t say a word as Playmaker told him what was the case. He just stood there, arms crossed in front of his chest, eyes fixed on Yusaku’s face.

“And why did you call me?”

“I just told you.”

“No, you told me what you are doing. Didn’t tell me why did you call” Revolver said, his eyes drifting to Windy. “You told me you want to bring the Ignis back. I acknowledged it. I do not intend to help you.”

“You want redemption too, don’t you?”

Revolver looked back at Playmaker, his face unreadable.

Playmaker continued.

“You attacked Windy for things he did not do by his own volition” Playmaker said. “He deserves a chance at redemption as well.”

There was silence.

Windy snorted.

“Maybe he wouldn’t even be able to reverse it himself.”

Revolver’s gaze snapped at Windy.

“If you think you can goad me into it with that, Wind Ignis, you are mistaken.” It was the first time Revolver addressed him since he arrived, and his voice was just as cold as his glare.

“I do not intend to goad you into anything. I just want you to say no already and disappear.”

Revolver glared, and he stepped forward, grabbing the old duel disk.

“Hey!”

“Revolver…”

“I will remove the virus” Revolver said simply. “I will not reverse any damage it caused. We all need to bear the scars of our sins.”

~*~

Windy was aware that Revolver didn’t take him to the other Hanoi - he seemed to have taken him to his old house, and basically throwing Windy down to the desk in front of the computers.

“Be gentle, please, I am still very inexperienced~”

Revolver only glared at him as a response as he sat down, connecting the duel disk to the computer.

“Shut up.”

“Ow. Rough too. I guess there is no chance of cuddling afterwards, is there?”

“I can send you back immediately.”

“I would thank you, if you would, actually. This is almost the last place I want to be.”

“Same here. That’s why you should shut up, and let me work.”

Windy snorted, trying to rest in the duel disk, and letting Revolver look through the codes.

~*~

He really thought it would be done soon. Revolver made the virus, right? He should have had no problems getting it out of Windy.

But hours passed, and then it was the next day, with Revolver fallen asleep at the desk.

Windy pushed himself out of the duel disk, not paying attention to the pain, pulling Revolver’s hair, which made him jump awake.

“Hey, excuse me? Aren’t you supposed to be fixing me?”

Revolver swapped Windy’s hand away, rubbing his eyes.

“Can’t concentrate if I am tired, don’t you think? Do you want me to accidentally break your code?”

“Why didn’t you take it out already?”

Revolver lowered his arms, looking at the screen with a tired expression.

“I didn’t make the virus alone. And not only that, in the process of bringing you back, the virus seemed to have attached itself to your code, so it will take a more careful approach to get rid of it.”

“So, why aren’t you asking the ones who helped you make it? They have to be the other knights, right?”

Revolver was silent for a few moments, and kept looking at the screen.

The green glow of the screen gave him an almost sickly expression, and soon the answer dawned at Windy, and it made him snicker a bit.

“Oh, you don’t want them to know you are helping me, do you?”

“This is my job. Playmaker asked me, not them.”

“You are not sure if they would approve, right?”

“Shut up.”

Windy laughed, but other than that, did shut up.

~*~

After that, they almost fell into a routine. Revolver would leave him there sometimes - to sleep a bit, probably, but often fell asleep at his chair. Sometimes he would leave to eat, other times, he would order takeout.

Playmaker or Ai sometimes would show up with food or coffee.

Windy wasn’t sure if they were checking on Revolver to make sure he was eating, or to make sure he wasn’t killing Windy.

Probably both, to be honest.

As Revolver wasn’t the most chatty person in the universe, Windy didn’t have a lot of other options, but to think.

Even though he hated thinking, because his mind would drift to his memories.

His mind would drift to the way his body would move, and there would be thoughts in his mind, that they seemed _ right, _that they seemed like reasonable thoughts, reasonable actions.

(Flame was not yet back. Windy felt a knot in his stomach when he was thinking about Flame coming back, and looking into his eyes, and this knot had nothing to do with the remains of Revolver’s virus.)

He didn’t want to think of them.

~*~

“Hey, Revolver, Playmaker said you also want to atone.”

Revolver didn’t even acknowledge he heard him.

Of course he didn’t.

Not like that is gonna stop Windy from prying.

“Hey Revolver, what are you atoning for?”

“I don’t think an Ignis like you would understand.”

“Look at me, you idiot. You think _ I _wouldn’t understand atonement?”

Now that made Revolver’s fingers stop over his keyboard.

Didn’t look at Windy, though.

“The Knights of Hanoi have caused a lot of grief” Revolver started slowly. “It cannot be brushed over, or ignored. We are all prepared to take responsibility.”

“Yeah, but exactly _ what _for? The Lost Incident? Attacking Cyberse? The Tower of Hanoi? Which one?”

“Pick whichever gives you the answer that will make you shut up.”

Windy hummed a little, and then suddenly stopped, and narrowed his good eye.

“You did not say that attacking Cyberse is not one of them.”

Revolver kept quiet.

“You can’t just ignore me! Are you also atoning for attacking Cyberse?”

“My father felt that attacking you was the right thing to do” Revolver replied, still not looking at Windy. “And we all followed him.”

“That was not an answer!”

“That is the answer you will get.”

~*~

Windy was growing restless. He was still weak, and tied to Revolver’s computer, and Revolver was still mostly boring, so all he had were his thoughts.

Then one day, Revolver threw a phone at him that Windy scattered to catch, but he managed.

“Huh?”

“You keep fidgeting. It’s annoying” Revolver said simply, sitting down. “Play something on it, or I don’t care. Just don’t be distracting.”

Windy hummed, looking through the phone’s applications - and he found a game where you had to play Duel Monsters against a primitive AI.

The high score was listed under the name _ Ryoken. _

“I bet I can beat your high score.”

“You are an AI yourself, it doesn’t mean much if you have the high score.”

“I’m still gonna do it.”

Turns out it wasn’t going to be that easy.

Turns out, the AI in the phone was a cheating bastard.

“Hey, you can’t do that!” Windy yelled at the phone. “That makes no sense! Why would he draw just the card he needs?!”

“Because it is probably programmed to beat you, so you are forced to buy items.”

“Give me your credit card number. I am gonna buy the items.”

“I am gonna take back the phone, if you don’t shut up.”

~*~

Windy didn’t know why he didn’t notice it earlier. Usually he was watching the codes alongside Revolver, or lost in the memories he didn’t want to be lost in, or in the phone, but one night, when Revolver was still awake and working, his eyes drifted outside.

And his eye widened.

He tried to push himself up as much as he could - his body was still in pain, but he tried his best to look through the window.

“...what are you doing?”

He didn’t answer Revolver, just tried his best to take up his monstrous form, so he could just… see outside. But it was a struggle, and his body felt like it was going to fall apart by the scars that held him together.

Then he felt Revolver unplug the disk, and he was being lifted up, as Revolver took him outside to the balcony.

Windy almost collapsed back to the duel disk, exhaling, like he was really dependent on oxygen (he wasn’t), and he blinked tiredly, looking over the lights on the water.

“...so this is why it’s called Stardust Road, huh.”

“...yeah.”

The two of them were silent, both of them just looking at the phenomena.

Windy had no idea how long were they standing there, the duel disk in Revolver’s hands, both of them just looking at the lights.

And maybe it was just his imagination, but he felt like his body was hurting a bit less.

~*~

“You didn’t answer, exactly what do you want to atone for.”

“I told you to just pick one, and leave me alone with that.”

“Oh come on, give me something to work with! You are annoying.”

Revolver reached out to pull on the tendril on his a little, which made Windy yelp.

“Ow! I am already in constant pain, and you keep hurting me. I will call CPS.”

“You are not a child. Maybe I should call animal control instead.”

“I am not an animal either!”

Windy was fuming - and the corner of Revolver’s mouth turned to a small smirk.

“But it is an important question, though. Because if it’s the Lost Incident, then you shouldn’t push yourself over it.”

The smirk disappeared from Ryoken’s face, as he glanced at Windy, who crossed his arms in front of his chest.

“Yeah, sure, I am not stupid. I saw how you look at Playmaker. You think you are personally responsible for dragging him and the other kids to your daddy. Truth is, you were a kid. Take responsibility for things that you have done, not for things you didn’t do. You idiot.”

Revolver was quiet, before pulling his hands back from the keyboard, and leaning back.

“I did take Playmaker to my father.”

“...huh?”

He was silent for a few moments.

“We were travelling, and stopped for a night in a hotel, because something came up. I was wandering the city, and ran into another kid, who also had Duel Monsters cards, so I invited him over to play. My father then offered then the two of us can come along and he will show us the newest technologies he is working on at SOL.”

“...and that kid was Playmaker.”

“Yeah.”

“Did you know that…”

“Obviously not!” Revolver snapped, glaring at Windy.

Windy was silent for a few moments, before a thought dawned on him.

A single, horrible, ironic thought that made him laugh a bit.

“...what?”

“You said you were travelling and took an unplanned stop, right?”

“Right.”

“Revolver… where _ were _you going?”

Revolver looked confused, frowning, obviously not understanding what Windy was hinting at.

“I don’t remember. It was a long time ago.”

“Revolver, your father totally planned for you to be the last child in the experiment. Playmaker just came handy.”

Crash.

Revolver kicked himself to his feet so quickly that his chair fell over, and now he was glaring daggers at Windy.

“My father never wanted to involve me in th---”

“He said that, didn’t he?” Windy interjected, crossing his arms in front of his chest. “So then why did he involve you in his extermination plot? He had enough others to follow his orders. Or why did he ever let you see the experiment in the first place, if he never wanted to involve you?”

Revolver didn’t answer. Windy saw that his fists were clenched and trembling, and part of him wondered if he will be getting punched - but before he could have voiced his concerns about it, Revolver stormed out.

~*~

“Why didn’t humanity go back to the moon?”

Maybe it was an awkward follow-up question after Revolver came back, but Windy was annoyed by the icy silence.

Revolver looked at him from the corner of his eye.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean what I said” Windy shrugged. “Y’all went to the moon, didn’t you? One would think you would be all hyped to go further or make colonies up there.”

Revolver looked back at the screen, and for a few moments Windy thought he wouldn’t get an answer, and he was gearing himself up to _ bite _Revolver if he has to, how dare he ignore him after all, he was starting to get annoying, when…

“I think they found that building virtual worlds is more appealing than actually going into space.”

“Huh?”

“Think about it” Revolver said, gesturing out the window. “Stardust Road is beautiful and romantic if you look at it. But once you go there, it is just a floating rock in space. Not very romantic.”

“So it’s escapism?”

Revolver shrugged.

“I guess you could say that.”

Then he was silent again, but at least the silence wasn’t that icy anymore. That was something.

~*~

Ai brought him a SOLtiS body.

“Revolver said that you don’t need to be connected for him to work on the virus” He explained, setting the android down. “He will be working on the antivirus based on the data he already collected. We can try if you are maybe in less pain in this.”

“Revolver wants to get rid of me, huh?”

“He said you are annoying” Ai grinned. “So good job with annoying him I guess. Try not to piss him off too much that he won’t fix you, though.”

Windy snickered, eyeing the body suspiciously.

That didn’t look very promising, without him designing it first, but hey, if Ai could do it, he can make a better body.

~*~

“I can’t believe you actually made a worse body than Ai.”

“I can’t believe you call him by his name, but I am still _ Wind Ignis. _I am gonna be jealous.”

Whatever Revolver said, Windy was fond of his body.

“You look like a goth loser.”

“I look classy.”

“You absolutely not.”

Screw whatever he thought. The elegant shirt and the long dark coat and the eyepatch was classy.

He even had a ponytail.

Extra classy.

“You are just jealous of my style.”

“Yes, how could you guess?” Revolver asked deadpan. “I always wanted to look like a goth pirate.”

“Well, you do have a boat, and you are a criminal. And you brood all the time. So it sounds like you wanted to be a goth pirate.”

“No.”

Windy snickered, taking strides around the room, finally being able to actually _ move. _That was new, and something.

“You shouldn’t leave the house” Revolver said, without looking up. “I might need you to come back to check on your data more, and I won’t track you down around the city.”

“Aye, aye captain.”

~*~

The house was stupidly big, and Windy couldn’t help but wonder, how many of them used to live there. Was it just Revolver and his dad? He saw pictures of the two of them in some of the rooms. He also saw a woman in some photos, with light hair and Ryoken’s piercing blue eyes - his mother, Windy assumed.

But those pictures were the only personal belongings he saw, while going through the house. Most of the rooms were all nice, with beautiful, probably used-to-be expensive furniture inside.

They absolutely didn’t seem lived in, though.

“You never mention your mother.”

Revolver glanced up at Windy, and shrugged a little, before looking back at the screen.

“There is not much to talk about. She died when I was little. I don’t remember her. It was just my father and me for as long as I remember.”

“Huh. That is why you don’t want to entertain the possibility that your father planned for you to be the sixth kid in the experiment before Playmaker turned up.”

Revolver pursed his lips.

“There is no way to tell that now, is there? My father is dead.”

“You are not denying it vehemently now.”

Windy pointed it out, and Revolver didn’t reply.

Windy almost felt bad about it.

Almost.

~*~

“I can run a little update on you to lessen the pain, if you get back to the duel disk.”

“Or I can just stay in my human form.”

Revolver glanced at Windy.

“Or I can just update you in your SOLtiS body. Are you going to stop being difficult?”

Windy narrowed his eyes, crossing his arms in front of his chest.

“I would like to see you try.”

Okay. Maybe he was difficult on purpose, but he couldn’t help but be… intrigued of what Revolver would do.

Turns out, Revolver was still very quick in the real world too, moving quickly - he grabbed Windy’s arm, and yanked the flailing android into his own lap. One hand at the nape of his neck, on the light showing what he is, another one on Windy’s waist, keeping him there firmly.

“Under this light, there is a port which was designed for software updates” Revolver said. “So either you get back to the duel disk, or I can just update you through this.”

“Oh. Ooooh. You are being _ dirty. _ You looked into how my _ body _works huuuh? You really a--- eep!”

He gave out a yelp as Revolver didn’t let him finish, just flipped the little light open, and attached a cable to the nape of his neck.

Windy’s entire body shivered, and he only took a few moments to glance at the code that was getting inside him to update him - sure enough, it seemed to be an update, before turning his attention to Revolver, who still held him in his lap.

Well.

“You like to play rough, aren’t you?” Windy basically purred, whispering into Revolver’s ear. “Let’s face it, you _ really _didn’t need to pull me into your lap to do this.”

“I can push you down.”

Windy could tell Revolver was trying his best to sound deadpan - but Windy noticed the way his cheeks were becoming slightly flushed, how he did his best to focus on the screen ahead of him.

“And yet you aren’t.” Windy whispered, and he could see how the hairs stood up on the back of Revolver’s neck - probably from feeling Windy’s breath on his skin.

Android bodies sure were convenient for things like this, apparently.

He brushed his thumb over Revolver’s jawline, and he let his lips brush by his ear, and now he _ definitely _shivered under his touch, and yet he did not let Windy go, did not push him away.

Windy pulled back his head, still brushing by Revolver’s (obviously reddening) skin, just so he could look into Revolver’s eyes - and when he did, his own breath got caught in his throat.

He didn’t even need to breathe, and yet - and yet when he saw the look in Revolver’s icy blue eyes, he felt like doing something even more stupid.

It was like the entire world stopped existing, and Windy was suddenly hyper-aware of Revolver’s hands on his waist and on his neck, keeping him in place, not pulling him closer, not pushing him away. Just keeping him there.

Instead of doing something even more stupid though, Windy grinned.

“We could take this to somewhere more comfor--- OW”

He couldn’t finish, because Revolver yanked the cable out from Windy’s neck, and pushed him down to the floor. Windy scrambled to close the light on the back of his neck, but he was still grinning as he looked up at Revolver.

“As I thought, you really aren’t a cuddler, are you? OW!”

Revolver didn’t reply, just reached down to pull on Windy’s ponytail.

How rude.

~*~

He figured he should have went back to the duel disk, to check on how his body was holding up, after Revolver’s update.

But he also felt nicer, walking around in a human form in the big, empty house.

It was still somewhat boring, so he was still messing around on the phone Revolver gave him, trying to beat the computer over and over again, while Revolver was working.

“You know, you could also log into Link VRAINS. Especially now that you have this body.”

Windy thought about it, and then shrugged.

“Nah. I’m fine.”

Revolver glanced back at him.

“Is there any particular reason you don’t want to log in?”

“Nope. I just don’t feel like it.”

“You are a bad liar.”

“Hey, why aren’t you going back to your boat to your buddies? You would get rid of me sooner like that.”

Revolver turned back to his computer, and didn’t reply.

Predictably.

Of course now that those can of worms were opened, Windy wasn’t going to let it go.

Nope, no chance.

So he pushed himself to his feet, so he could hurry over to Revolver, and lean on his chair.

“I bet they wouldn’t be happy about this. You helping me and all that” Windy started to mess with Revolver’s hair, which caused him to frown. “I bet they would think you are going against what your daddy dearest would have wanted.”

Revolver stopped typing, and he just looked up at Windy.

“So why aren’t you going into Link VRAINS? Are you afraid of meeting the other Ignis?”

“...huh?”

“Playmaker told me that the next they found a lead on bringing back, is the Fire Ignis. I bet you don’t really want to face _ him, _do you?”

Now it was Windy’s turn to storm out from the room.

~*~

Windy wished he could have forgotten.

He wished that when he was reprogrammed, his memories would not have remained. He wished for Revolver’s virus to have killed the memories - but alas, they remained, perfectly.

He remembered pushing himself out of Flame’s body. He remembered how Flame screamed, he remembered the words he said.

He remembered _ enjoying it. _

Windy was sitting out on the balcony, looking over Stardust Road, hugging his knees, trying to _ not _think about it.

“For what it’s worth, I think once they tell the Fire Ignis that you were reprogrammed, I don’t think he will hold a grudge against you.”

“Well he did say he will never forgive me. So did Soulburner.”

“That was before we found out what the Light Ignis did to you.”

Windy glanced up at Revolver - he half-expected him to not look at him, to have his eyes fixed on Stardust Road.

So he was surprised when his gaze met Revolver’s.

“And what about you, Revolver? You were adamant about hating me too.”

“I did not know that you were reprogrammed either.”

Windy forced himself to smile a little, ignoring the stinging behind his eyes.

Stupid. Androids don’t cry, right? That would be a useless function.

“Does that mean you don’t hate me anymore, huh?”

Revolver turned away, and walked back inside.

“You should come in, Windy. Sitting out here won’t change anything at all.”

He was already gone when Windy realised that he used his name for the first time.

~*~

“...hey, Rev--- Ryoken, there is somewhere I want to go to.”

“Is it really important? Can’t it wait until I’m done?”

“...I think if I don’t go now, I might never go.”

Ryoken turned around in his chair, and looked at Windy with raised eyebrows.

“And I suppose you want me to go with you to keep you from chickening out?”

Windy normally would have snapped back.

But this was no normal day, no normal request.

So he just said one word.

“...please.”

Ryoken looked taken aback from the lack of snappy response, and just nodded.

He didn’t ask where did Ryoken get a self-driving car, but they climbed in to the backseat, and Ryoken gestured at the computer.

“Feel free.”

All Windy had to do was to put his hand on the screen, and he told the AI where to drive them.

“You, trusting AIs to drive? That’s new. Let alone letting _ me _drive basically.”

Ryoken crossed his arms in front of his chest, and looked to the side.

“If you crash us, you screw yourself over too, because who will finish fixing you? Playmaker and his friends would take a longer time. And the rest of Hanoi definitely won’t help you, if you kill me.”

Okay.

That much was true.

He leaned back in the car, staring at the top of it, and he already hated what he was doing.

He knew Ryoken must have realised by this point where were they going and why.

Windy actually appreciated that for once, Ryoken didn’t make a single comment.

~*~

It took a while to find the grave in the graveyard, for a while, the two of them just wandered around, checking the names and dates.

Windy saw the dates, mentally doing calculations. Humans’ lifespan seemed so… short. 87 years, 45 years, 79 years. 22 years, 5 years. Finite, something that ends.

Windy knew he wasn’t that old either, and technically he already died once, but still - theoretically he had the chance to go on longer. Humans didn’t.

It was… odd.

“Windy.”

He heard his name being called as Ryoken stopped in front of a grave, and Windy felt like his stomach dropped.

Those few steps he needed to make were the hardest he had to do - his legs felt like he was wearing boots made of lead or something.

But he eventually reached there, and looked at the grave.

16 years.

Windy looked at the grave, and felt his chest tightened.

“...I talked with him once, after I fled Cyberse. I went to visit him. Told him who I was.”

Ryoken was silent, and just listened - Windy wasn’t sure if he was grateful for this, or he wished he would have stopped him.

“He didn’t want anything to do with me. He was pushing away all his memories of the Incident, trying his best to live a normal life.”

“And what did you do?”

“What do you think?” Windy snapped. “You know what I did.”

“Before that. When you visited him, it was before the Light Ignis reprogrammed you, wasn’t it? What did you do, then?”

Windy was silent, staring at the grave, and there was that stinging sensation behind his eyes again.

Who the hell thought giving these bodies the function to cry was a good idea?

“...I left. It stung, but I left. He didn’t want to team up with me, so I let him go. And then I met Lightning, and…”

His legs gave up, and he fell to his knees in front of the grave, and his throat felt tighter and tighter, the stinging in his eyes unbearable, and there was wetness on his face.

“And I… And I… And I went back. After he… after Lightning… all my bitterness I felt over him rejecting me, it just came back with full force, and I… and I laughed when… I…”

He leaned forward, hugging himself in a desperate attempt to keep himself together, despite the fact that he felt more and more tears streaming down on his face.

And then there was a hesitant hand on his shoulder.

Upon feeling Ryoken’s touch, his entire body eased up, and it was like a dam opening up, and a flood of tears finally being unleashed.

Windy had no idea how long was he kneeling there, sobbing, with Ryoken’s hand on his shoulder, but by the time he stood up, his eyes and throat were still hurting, and it was hard to breathe, as he looked down at the grave.

“...I’m sorry. I know it doesn’t… it doesn’t change anything. But I am sorry. This is not… not what you deserved. I’m sorry. Goodbye.”

He tried to walk away, and he tripped - and Ryoken was there, holding him by his arm. Windy didn’t say a word, just clung onto Ryoken’s arm, allowing him to lead him back to the car.

He also had no idea how did he end up asleep (he didn’t need to sleep, not really, even though dreams could be nice, but sometimes, Windy liked to just shut everything out), on the backseat, with his head in Ryoken’s lap. But Ryoken’s fingers were playing with his ponytail, while he was lying there, so Windy figured he could pretend to be asleep a little bit longer like that.

~*~

Windy had no idea why did he end up going back to the duel disk. He figured he spent too much time in the SOLtiS body lately, so why not? It was a hunch, maybe. It was comfortable being an android, after all, it was not painful at all. Unlike his small form, so he went back inside, bracing himself for the pain…

The pain didn’t come.

Huh?

He looked around, confused, pushing himself out of the duel disk even more - still no pain. Didn’t feel like falling apart anymore - and his scars seemed to have been more faded as well. He hesitantly touched his bad eye - that one was still messy, but much less sensitive to touch as well.

That… was odd.

What was going on?

He looked at the computer, and frowned - reaching out his hands, looking through the logs.

What was Ryoken doing? Was he just dragging out time for no reason? No, he was working, he was sure about that.

But…

“...you son of a bitch.”

He couldn’t stop himself from swearing, before leaving the duel disk, and going back to his SOLtiS body.

That was the fastest way to storm over to the room where Ryoken was sleeping at currently, after all.

~*~

“What the hell, Ryoken!?”

Windy literally kicked the door open, and it was quite loud and sudden enough for Ryoken to jump awake immediately, if a bit disoriented.

“...what?”

“What the hell are you working on lately? Huh? Wanna enlighten me about that?”

Ryoken sat up, as Windy walked closer to him, arms crossed in front of his chest, glaring down at him. (In retrospect maybe he should have made his human form taller, because this was pretty much the only situation where he could look down at Ryoken. But that was neither here nor there.)

“You know what.”

“Like hell you are! You already finished the antivirus” Windy pointed at Ryoken accusingly. “And you already updated me with that. That’s what you plugged into me when you were being all naughty.”

“Maybe if you wouldn’t have concentrated on the _ naughtiness _of it, you would have noticed it even then.”

“That is not the point! The point is what are you doing since then?!”

“What do you think?”

“...huh?”

Ryoken moved quickly, grabbing Windy’s wrist, yanking him down to the bed - and the next thing Windy knew, he was on his back, with Ryoken pinning him down.

“I asked: what do you think?” Ryoken repeated himself.

“...I don’t have to _ think” _Windy muttered, averting his gaze, trying to ignore the way his cheeks were heating up. “I saw the files. You are working on fixing my body. Healing my scars.”

“There you have it.”

“But…” Windy hesitated, looking back at Ryoken. “...why? What happened with _ we all need to bear the scars of our sins?” _

Ryoken looked down at him, and slowly shook his head.

“I stand by it. But those were not your sins.”

With that, Ryoken let him go, and pushed himself up on the bed to a sitting position, but Windy wasn’t going to let Ryoken get rid of him that easily - he moved after him, pushing Ryoken’s back to the wall, straddling his lap, trapping him there.

“Explain” Windy hissed, grabbing Ryoken’s shirt. “What do you mean?”

“I mean that you shouldn’t feel bad for things you didn’t do” Ryoken said, raising one of his hands, to push the eyepatch off from Windy’s face, discarding it. “Don’t punish yourself for things you are not responsible for.”

“...pot. Kettle. Black.”

Ryoken smiled a little, but there was no happiness in his smile - only reluctant acceptance.

“No. No, no no. Don’t look like that. I mean it” Windy shook Ryoken a little. “You talk like I shouldn’t feel bad for… what I did to my origin, what I did to Flame, when I assisted in almost destroying humanity… then why should you feel bad for what your father and the other Knights did? They tortured children, not you. And you did the _ right thing _calling the authorities. Your father wouldn’t have stopped. You know that. We all know that. And then who knows what would have happened to the victims in there, how long could they have been hanging on. It’s not your fault.”

Ryoken looked back at him.

“And what about Cyberse?”

Windy huffed.

“You can grovel a bit more about that.”

“And what about your body?”

“Well, it was either me, or you. I probably would have erased you if I would have won. So you know. Fair enough.”

Ryoken was silent, and Windy sighed, and shook his head, annoyed.

“Maybe stop telling me to don’t feel guilty over things that _ apparently _weren’t my fault if you are gonna be a hypocrite about it.”

“I guess we are just both incorrigible.”

“Is that supposed to just put an end to this? Is that your last word?”

“Maybe.”

“Hu--”

He couldn’t finish.

He couldn’t finish, because Ryoken grabbed the back of his neck, and pulled him close for a kiss.

Windy had known what kissing was, obviously. He had seen a lot of things through the network, and he understood humans seemed to be fond of it. Up until that point he really had no idea what was all the buzz about - kissing seemed kind of… well, weird.

For a few moments it also felt weird - their lips touching, and his mind was racing, mostly question marks flying around in Windy’s head. But then his body caught up with what was happening, and… _ oh, _okay, he seemed to get it more, as he leaned into the kiss, and kissed him back. It was like Ryoken’s touch sent signals all over Windy’s body, and it made Windy push himself even closer to Ryoken, completely pushing him against the wall - and Ryoken just held onto him as well, not easing up on the kiss at all, seemingly not willing to let Windy go either.

When Windy pulled his head back, it was still hard to breathe, which shouldn’t have been, seeing as he was in an _ android body, _ but alas. Apparently these bodies were _ very _ accurate, even in situations like this.

The two of them were silent for a few moments, looking into each others’ eyes. And then Windy grinned.

“So. _ Are _you a cuddler or not?”

Okay, so maybe he asked for being pushed down from the bed.

Maybe.

(Still worth it.)

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!


End file.
